Let's have a thread for all the Veterans to step forward and take a bow.

[HappyPuppy]

Originally posted by: sandorski
In Canada Nov 11 is "Remembrance Day", just thought you guys should know.

I think most of us are glad to salute the Canadian vets who have given their time and their lives to preserve freedom.

I say "Thank You" to all the Canadian vets.

 

[FlashG]

What a wonderful topic for a thread.

I?m not a vet but my oldest son is on his 15th yr. as a submariner. Needless to say our whole family is very proud of him. Not to forget all the past and present folks serving in our armed forces.

I personally thank every one of you (service men & women) for making this place (US of A) the great Republic that it is. Sounds corny but that?s how I really feal.

 

[911paramedic]

I forgot to mention that I was a vet too, but I think war vets are the ones that deserve this award, I was never involved in active combat, I started in '84. I will repeate what I said about my uncle again:

My uncle was a CWO2 (chief warrant officer) during vietnam. He flew both gunships and med evac helocopters. He was shot down twice and still has back problems from it, even though he does work full time today.

He now has a wife and two children, one is 16 and is in the naval acadamy.

Thank you Phil.

 

[burnedout]

Kudos to DaveSohmer for the surprising list. What an outstanding NCO.

And thank you all.

U.S. Army - 1980-2000

 

[HappyPuppy]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
I forgot to mention that I was a vet too, but I think war vets are the ones that deserve this award, I was never involved in active combat, I started in '84. I will repeate what I said about my uncle again:

My uncle was a CWO2 (chief warrant officer) during vietnam. He flew both gunships and med evac helocopters. He was shot down twice and still has back problems from it, even though he does work full time today.

He now has a wife and two children, one is 16 and is in the naval acadamy.

Thank you Phil.

911, all vets, whether they were in war/combat or not, put themselves in the line of fire just by being soldiers. No matter how cushy your military job might be today, every soldier knows that tomorrow they might be in a far worse place.

I am not minimalizing the service of those who have been under fire, I am merely pointing out that every soldier, irregareless of the military branch, takes the chance of being in a hazardous duty zone at any time.

 

[jemcam]

US Army Field Artillery 1986-2000

M109A3, 155mm
M110A2, 8 inch
MLRS

MOS 71L, Unit Clerk
MOS 13E Fire Direction Specialist
OCS
Forward Observer
Fire Direction Officer
Executive Officer
Battery Commander
Battalion S1 staff officer

Hoooahh!

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: jemcam
US Army Field Artillery 1986-2000

M109A3, 155mm
M110A2, 8 inch
MLRS

MOS 71L, Unit Clerk
MOS 13E Fire Direction Specialist
OCS
Forward Observer
Fire Direction Officer
Executive Officer
Battery Commander
Battalion S1 staff officer

Hoooahh!

oh yeah!, "party with arty"

 

[Bushwicktrini]

USN 1993-1997
USS Austin LPD-4
BT3 Eng Div

 

[etech]

I am not minimalizing the service of those who have been under fire, I am merely pointing out that every soldier, irregareless of the military branch, takes the chance of being in a hazardous duty zone at any time.

In the spring of 1980 Petty Officer 2nd Class Rick B. was washed over the side of my former ship along with 3 other men. I heard it was a freak wave that came out of nowhere. One of the men was saved. The bodies of the other three were not recovered. Two others that were not washed over the side were seriously injured.

I remember Rick because he was my friend. Even in peacetime the service can be dangerous.

 

[Brutuskend]

That's true.
If you look at my first post in here, you will see the aircraft I worked on.

The engines used on these planes have an abort switch that drains the electricity out of the system if for some reason they don't start. Usually the reason they fail to start can be traced back to a plug that "lives" on the bottom on the engine than connects to a "Black Box" under there. If the engine fails to start, the Pilot is suppose to hit the abort switch and then the plane Capt. (ME) opens up the engine cowling and checks the connection on the "Black Box". As you can see from the picture I linked to in my post, the Prop. is VERY VERY close to the engine cowling. TWICE I had my head almost taken off because the Pilot failed to hit the abort switch like he was supposed to. And BOTH times it was my C.O. in the drivers seat, with my Master Gunny riding shotgun. Sad, because I couldn't even "VENT" to the idiots.......

So yeah, I guess we all do put ourselves in harms way, one way or another.........

 

[jadinolf]

Modestly takes bow.

USAF 1952-1956

Yes, they had planes back then........

 

[T2T III]

I just have to plug a few more:

My Father (Deceased): U.S. Army - WWII
My Father-in-Law: U.S. Navy - Korean War (also a graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy)

Thanks for the thread - and all the support that's being presented. I posted my details up earlier in this thread. The only war I was part of was the Cold War. However, being on a SAC base, things were pretty serious all of the time. Actual alerts didn't frequently happen, but there were plenty of practice alerts that kept us on our toes. Also, I remember when Ronald Reagan launched an attack on Libya during 1986 - a few months before I separated from active duty. I can still remember that evening quite clearly and the news reports that I heard on the radio. I did get a slight chill down my spine because I didn't know how far things would go and how I would be affected. Fortunately, things moved pretty fast and not a lot of troops were required to handle the situation.

Allow me to express my thanks to all of the other fellow Vets on this forum, their fathers, their grandfathers, their neighbors, their friends, their family members - and whoever else they may have mentioned.

Also, in relation to this thread, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is Washington, D.C. is approaching its 20-year anniversary.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: etech

I am not minimalizing the service of those who have been under fire, I am merely pointing out that every soldier, irregareless of the military branch, takes the chance of being in a hazardous duty zone at any time.

In the spring of 1980 Petty Officer 2nd Class Rick B. was washed over the side of my former ship along with 3 other men. I heard it was a freak wave that came out of nowhere. One of the men was saved. The bodies of the other three were not recovered. Two others that were not washed over the side were seriously injured.

I remember Rick because he was my friend. Even in peacetime the service can be dangerous.

When I was in the Med on the Indy we had an F-4 hit the round down (curved transition area on the aft edge of the flight deck). It removed the left main mount and the left portion of the wing outward of the wing fold joint yet incredibly the pilot managed to do a bolter and had the plane still flying. We immediately went into emergency recovery mode and rigged the barricade net. When the plane hit the deck it went right through the barricade and off into the water. It was night time and sailors on that side of the ship said they saw the flashes of the 2 ejection seats. We spent the next 3 days on station looking for the pilot and navigator but never did find them.

On the same cruise we also later lost an A-7. It was in the pattern to land about 10 miles off the ship when it just disappeared from radar. There was no communication from it prior to the disappearance and once again we spent 3 days looking with no success. As Etech said it is a dangerous business even in peacetime.

 

[olds]

USA - 13Foxtrot - Fire Support Sergeant - "Twisted Fister"

 

[Farmall]

A big Thank You to all who have served and those who are serving in the armed forces now. I have a sister and brother who are serving now and am very proud of both of them for what they do. The military is something that we as civilians sometimes take for granted, forgetting that the possibility of the loss of life is quite real no matter how small the conflict might be. I hope all who have served will post, its a small way for the rest of us to be able to recognize you for what you've done and have the oppurtunity to thank you.


Farmall

 

[BeeVo]

HappyPuppy-

Even though we don't agree in the other thread I want to say thank you. And thank you to all of those who did or is serving our country.

 

[friedpie]

One of my jobs as a liquid fuels maintenance tech in the Air Force was to clean above ground and below ground bulk storage fuel tanks. Some of the above ground tanks were massive, 1/2 million gallons. Back then the AF used JP-4. It was volatile sh*t. The above ground tanks had lids that floated on the fuel to cut down on evaporation. You just couldn't have that much fuel exposed to the elements. This lid had 6' legs that supported it when the tank was empty. Our job was to empty the tank(s) then vent all of the vapor out from under the lid. One time when I was at Castle AFB we were cleaning a tank. We had sucked most of the vapor out of the tank but the lid's rubber seal was damaged and was leaking some fuel (the seal that went all the way around the diameter of the lid was stuffed with foam rubber) that had gotten into the seal. Because of that, the environment was pretty hairy.

We had to climb up the side of the tank and then descend down a ladder onto the top of the lid. It's weird because you are inside a giant can of gas. The tank is probably 40 feet tall. The lid is sitting on 6' legs, and you know underneath you is a lot of fuel vapor. You just hope you sucked enough of the vapor out so if there's a problem it won't go off like a cannon.

When we were examining the lid seal the damn thing tore away from the weight of the fuel inside of it. As it slid down the inside of the tank it caught fire! Luckily the fire was away from the ladder so we ran like hell up that ladder, then back down the other side to safety. Thankfully we had sucked all the vapor out, otherwise it would have gone boom! It's hard to explain, but it was probably the scariest experience I have ever had. I kept thinking inside my head as I ran, "don't blow, don't blow!"

It didn't blow because we had done our job by sucking enough fuel vapor out that even with the additional fuel from the broken seal, there was not enough for an explosion.

Our maintenance chief had been in an explosion at the same location 10 years earlier. A contractor was doing the job. They cut some corners and the resulting blast killed 2 people.

Then there were the underground tanks. Oh boy, I did not like those things. Scared me silly.

p.s. When I was at Osan, they were building a truly massive tank. It was half underground, half above ground with a dome on it. I left in 1984 before the tank was completed. In 1985 when they were filling it up for the very first time static electricity built up inside of it setting off a massive explosion that killed something like 18 people who were in the vacinity. That's how crazy that dang JP-4 was. Any kind of movement, be it fuel rushing into the tank, people walking, could release a static charge that could set it off. I hated it!

 

[Parrotheader]

Thanks to my granddad (WWII) and my father-in-law (Vietnam).

I'm still trying to get my father-in-law to tell me more about his experience in Vietnam, but it's tough subject to broach with him even though we're close. I certainly don't want to push him on it. My grandfather used to be the same way. But since I was a history major and the oldest of only 3 grandsons (he has 8 granddaughters) he's let down his guard about this subject over the last few years and told me all sorts of stories about his time during WWII. After one particularly long conversation with him one night, I immediately found some paper and jotted down as much as I could remember of what he'd just said to me. I plan to write it out more formally one day (coupled with information gathered from other family members about his service records) to make sure that my children know what he saw and experienced.

I'm sure plenty of other people have similiar stories. His quick synopsis is as follows. Coming from a very poor family in Arkansas he enlisted in 1941 and after basic training for the infantry spent about a year and a half out in the northwest and California on guard duty at docks and then at the Japanese internment camps, something that was particularly interesting to hear his perspective on. After that he was sent over to England where they continued training before D-Day. He was at the landings on Omaha beach and then served under Patton's 8th Army (I believe he was in the 320th div.) as they broke out of hedgerow country and made their big sweep across northern France. He saw over 90% of his company wiped out during the Battle of Bulge and after they pushed into Germany he was there at the liberation of the conentration camp at Buchenwald. The war ended before he was transferred from Europe to the Pacific.

It wasn't the big overall stories he told that fascinated me. I'm thoroughly versed on all those (at least I was during college) and knew how all those went. It was all the little details, both fond memories and nightmarish scenes, that I found truly fascinating. What it was like to have to guard Japanese-Americans and then later, liberate the survivors of the Holocaust . . . a particularly haunting experience, even after all the battles he'd been through. What it was like having your friends shot around you and having to shoot someone else in turn. What it was like during Christmas in 1944 when he got to spend the night in a barn snuggled up in the hay next to a cow after weeks of fighting in the cold (a particularly fond memory of his.) What it was like when an American bomber was shot down overhead and the Nazi fighters straffed the parachuting survivors and how that led to some particularly nasty hand-to-hand fighting as they tried to gain ground to recover the airmen. Even with all he's told me, it's still hard for me to imagine what it must have felt like. I can honestly say I'd rather not know first hand. But his opening up to me has definitely brought us closer than we ever were.

 

[Evadman]

Thank you all for letting me, and everyone else here be an ass.

Without you guys and gals we sould all be screwed.

Thank you.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Yes, I am feeling the pride that goes along with what we represent although I did not see combat.

Mods of this forum please delete Moonbeams post for its disrespect.

 

[ohtwell]

Just want to thank my daddy ,grand father and all the other brave men and women who have risked their lives for all of us!


: ) Amanda

 

[Frodolives]

Decorated veteran of the 101st Airborne Division. I was active Army 84-88, and reserve for 4 more years.

It was "peacetime" but there were many threats to our interests here and abroad, and HUNDREDS of soldiers from my last brigade died during those years while on duty such as the Arrow Air disaster and helicopter crashes and such

 

[dkozloski]

USN '61-'65, 3years 11months and 18 days. Boot camp Great Lakes, Il.; FAAWTC Dam Neck, VA. SAM Missile tech school.; General Dynamics, Pomona, CA. Terrier/Tartar school.; NWS Concord, Ca. Depot level repair and final assembly and acceptance testing.; USS Goldsborough DDG20, South China Sea and Yankee Station, Chasing Russian subs, coastal patrol, air watch, and plane guard detail. My dad was in WW1 in the Signal Corps, a precursor to the Air Corps. 27th Squadron, 1st pursuit grp. He was an armorer and crewed for Lt Frank Luke of Arizona, the "Ballon Buster". Winner of the Medal of Honor and for a time the "Ace of Aces".

 

[skyking]

Thanks for posting this thread, thanks to all of you who have served.
For my father, 4th marine division 23rd battlion(deceased).
For my mom's first husband, 4th marine division(father to 4 older brothers and sisters. He died of brain cancer in '52, growing at the site of a massive hemmorage from artillery concussion.)
For Uncle Al, US Army(deceased).

 

[Loach]

U.S. Army 1986-1991
67Y20 Attack Helicopter Crewchief
Bravo Troop 2/17th Air Cavalry
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

If any of you know a Vietnam Vet, please, say thank you to them.
They went through the grinder in Vietnam and here in the U.S. when they came home.
A simple "Hey man, thanks for doing what you did" really does make a difference !!!